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Healthier Children. A Better World.™

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Our Kids - Meet Madison

Matthew and Grace were very excited for the arrival of their first child. They did the necessary prenatal screenings and up until the day their daughter, Madison, was born, they felt they had no reason to worry about her health. Unfortunately, the screenings didn’t show that Madison would be born with some complicated health issues.

Madison

Madison, Down syndrome; atrioventricular septal defect

When Madison, or Maddie, was born at a hospital in downtown Toronto, her parents received some unexpected news; Maddie was born with Down Syndrome, a genetic condition that affects cognition and developmental growth. Patients with Down Syndrome have a 40-50 per cent chance of also having cardiac issues. Five days later, Maddie’s doctors found that she also had atrioventricular Septal Defect (AVSD), a heart condition that caused the formation of two holes in her heart.

Scared and confused, Matthew and Grace bravely realized that their baby daughter needed the best care in the world and with the help of the Acute Care Transport Services team (ACTS), transferred Maddie to SickKids to begin care on her tiny heart. Dr. Russell, a cardiologist at SickKids, decided that Maddie would soon be able to go home but would require surgery within the following year.

At 18 months old, Maddie came back to SickKids for her heart surgery and spent a week in the hospital recovering from the six-hour operation. Thankfully, Dr. Russell confirmed that Maddie would be unlikely to need more surgeries on her heart and would solely have to be monitored by the hospital every second year. She also gave the Tevlins the great news that Maddie would be able to have an active and busy childhood.

The Tevlins have made sure that Maddie experiences as much as possible to ensure she develops both physically and mentally. She is enrolled in various activities such as physiotherapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy, in addition to attending pre-school. Maddie has developed much faster than most children with Down Syndrome as a result of her parents’ insistence that she learns as much as she can. As a result, Maddie has discovered a love for reading. She loves playing with her little sister, Zoie, and spending quality  time with her grandparents.

Why SickKids?

SickKids Foundation

The SickKids Heart Centre is one of the largest and most successful in the world.  The Centre performs 80 per cent of all children’s heart transplants in Canada.  Children from across Ontario and beyond with serious congenital heart problems live longer and healthier lives thanks to the sophisticated and specialized treatments offered at SickKids, where survival rates for even the most complex surgeries are unsurpassed by any national or international program.

HOW CAN YOU HELP? Thousands of children like Madison need your support.